It's hard to believe that another regular season of Little League Baseball has gone by and that the US Regional tournaments begin this week. The Central Region's Great Lakes and Midwest pool play kicks off August 6 with the other Regional's beginning the next day. This an exciting time for anyone involved in Little League.

I'm planning of heading to the Central Region complex in Indianapolis, IN tomorrow, and have been in Kalamazoo, MI umpiring in the Senior League Baseball State tournament. The winner here heads to Columbia, MO for the Senior Baseball Regional for a five day pool play tournament. The winner heads to the Senior League Baseball World Series in Bangor, Maine. That is also my ultimate umpire goal as well. But as with all World Series assignments, it can be a long wait. As that old slogan goes, "Many may apply, but few are chosen".

Our tournament had been going smoothly until last night with lightening struck in the 4th inning. We're in the double elimination bracket after completing an 8 team pool play. We were playing the loser bracket with the winner moving on to the Championship game today against Midland Baseball Association from Midland, MI who are undefeated. The two teams playing to advance are Saginaw Little League and S/W Portage Little League and both need the win to advance.

We were tied 1-1 in the 4th when the lightening struck the first time and kept it up until about 7:45 PM when it was decided to suspend the game until today. Unfortunately, it also put us in a predicament. As I mentioned, this is a double elimination round and Midland needs to be beat twice with those games part of a double header. But first we need to finish the suspended game. No big deal right? I mean the winner moves on to the Championship game against Midland. But if the team beats Midland in that game, we need to have the "IF" game which would cause three games to be played.

The Tournament Director made a call last night to Williamsport to see if we would be allowed to play the double header (if needed) and the decision was to wait and see what happens. If Midland wins, they are the Champions. If Saginaw or S/W Portage wins and forces the "IF" game, then we'll need to call Williamsport again and get a decision. My guess is they will make us play the "IF" game tomorrow. But you never know... this is Little League after all and anything can happen.

I'll be umpiring 1st base for the Championship game and will have the Plate for the "IF" game. So... you know what I'd like to see. Either way, this has still been a great tournament hosted by Michigan District 2 and South Portage Little League. If you'd like to see the brackets, you can find them on the Michigan State site at http://www.llbmichigan.org.

I hope you'll follow me as I head to Indy and then on to the World Series in Williamsport. I'll be using Twitter as well so don't forget to follow me there too. The address is www.twitter.com/activetom.